Universe (Nov 2022)

Evolution of Spin Period and Magnetic Field of the Crab Pulsar: Decay of the Braking Index by the Particle Wind Flow Torque

  • Cheng-Min Zhang,
  • Xiang-Han Cui,
  • Di Li,
  • De-Hua Wang,
  • Shuang-Qiang Wang,
  • Na Wang,
  • Jian-Wei Zhang,
  • Bo Peng,
  • Wei-Wei Zhu,
  • Yi-Yan Yang,
  • Yuan-Yue Pan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8120628
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 12
p. 628

Abstract

Read online

The evolutions of a neutron star’s rotation and magnetic field (B-field) have remained unsolved puzzles for over half a century. We ascribe the rotational braking torques of pulsar to both components, the standard magnetic dipole radiation (MDR) and particle wind flow (MDR + Wind, hereafter named MDRW), which we apply to the Crab pulsar (B0531 + 21), the only source with a known age and long-term continuous monitoring by radio telescope. Based on the above presumed simple spin-down torques, we obtain the exact analytic solution on the rotation evolution of the Crab pulsar, together with the related outcomes as described below: (1) unlike the constant characteristic B-field suggested by the MDR model, this value for the Crab pulsar increases by a hundred times in 50 kyr while its real B-field has no change; (2) the rotational braking index evolves from ∼3 to 1 in the long-term, however, it drops from 2.51 to 2.50 in ∼45 years at the present stage, while the particle flow contributes approximately 25% of the total rotational energy loss rate; (3) strikingly, the characteristic age has the maximum limit of ∼10 kyr, meaning that it is not always a good indicator of a real age. Furthermore, we discussed the evolutionary path of the Crab pulsar from the MDR to the wind domination by comparing with the possible wind braking candidate pulsar PSR J1734-3333.

Keywords